


How To Win A Took's Friendship

by Tehri



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Before Bilbo's birth, Bungo and Isengrim are simply not friends, Bungo had a hard time befriending Belladonna's brothers, F/M, Fear the Tooks, Gen, at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 14:43:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3533225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tehri/pseuds/Tehri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bungo and Belladonna have news to share with the Took family. Bungo is pleased and fears for his life in equal measure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How To Win A Took's Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurasama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurasama/gifts).



> I have a whole bunch of headcanons regarding Bungo's and Belladonna's siblings, and they keep me occupied a lot. One of those headcanons is that Belladonna's brothers were rather hostile towards poor Bungo for some time before he wn them over by pure chance - he never figured out just how that happened. Another headcanon is that Isengrim became particularly fierce in protecting his younger siblings after the death of Hildigard, the second child in the family. Hence his utter fury at the mere notion of Belladonna being in love or marrying.

Bungo Baggins was terrified. There was no other word for it. If he had bothered to think a bit more about it, he might have managed to find another word for his current state of mind, but all in all he was a little too distracted as he walked out into the gardens of the Great Smials.

Visiting Tuckborough had become a regular part of his life since he started courting and later married Belladonna Took, the eldest daughter of Thain Gerontius Took. It wasn’t something that would normally bother him – the Tooks were friendly enough, once one got past their definitely wilder behaviour. He had managed to learn who was best to avoid and who would welcome a conversation, mostly thanks to his cousin Rosa who, after her marriage to Hildigrim Took, had become something of a mentor in the simpler methods of handling a Took.

This particular visit was _different_. Very _different_. And it was that _difference_ that terrified him.

When Bungo had started courting Belladonna, her brothers had been very vocal with their disapproval. A few of them, in particular Isengrim and Isumbras, had become physical too. At one point, Bungo had lost his temper and brought up a sturdy foot and kicked Isumbras in the stomach, and after the following scuffle the Took had ended up with a bleeding nose. Bungo had certainly been worse off, untrained as he was. And still Isumbras had grinned at him and simply told him to look after his little sister. That had been quite a confusing day, for all that it had ended with Isumbras apparently approving of him.

Isengrim was… Well. He was not so easy to win over. Most of the siblings had been pleased enough to note that Bungo could indeed hold his own in a fight (though a bit of practice was certainly needed) and that he could give Belladonna all that she deserved, but Isengrim still treated him with a simmering dislike. He tolerated him, on strict orders from both the Old Took and his wife, but that was also the end of his kindness.

Hence said terror of this particular visit. Bungo and Bella had news to share, and Bungo was not certain that he would walk away from this conversation with all his limbs still attached to his body. A concern that Belladonna had met with a bright laugh and a shake of the head while telling him that he was ridiculous.

Old Gerontius grinned brightly as he saw his son-in-law come into the gardens and waved him over. Bungo smiled back and slowly walked over to the old hobbit, trying to ignore the presence of the two eldest of Belladonna’s siblings. Isumbras sent him a cheerful grin, and Isengrim treated him to the usual withering glare.

“It’s good to see you again, lad,” Gerontius said and patted Bungo’s shoulder. “You and Bella really need to visit more often. Or at the very least stay longer.”

“We’ll try, I promise,” Bungo replied softly. “There’s been a lot to do in Hobbiton lately.”

“Well, we can discuss that another time,” Gerontius chuckled. “Come now, you said there were news you wanted to share?”

“If there are news to be shared, then where’s my gossip of a sister?” Isumbras asked with a laugh. “She’s always keen to talk!”

“She’s, ah… She wanted to speak with her mother and the others, and left the three of you to me.” Bungo glanced quickly at Isengrim again, fighting back the urge to hide somewhere. “In fact, she insisted that I should be the one to tell you.”

“If you might stop dithering for once in your life, we might actually speak of something that matters before luncheon,” Isengrim snapped.

Without hesitation, Gerontius reached out and smacked the back of his son’s head, giving him a sharp glare.

“And if you might stop spitting venom, your sister might be more keen on speaking to you again, Grim,” the Old Took hissed. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times; I don’t care what feud you imagine there to be between you and Bungo, you will _behave yourself_ when he and Bella are visiting!”

Isumbras rolled his eyes at his older brother and gave Bungo an apologetic smile.

“Don’t mind him,” he said quietly. “He’s just ornery.”

Poor Bungo could only smile weakly and nod; he might not be entirely certain yet about how to behave around Isumbras, but he was willing to take whatever advice he could about how to handle Isengrim’s moods.

“Come now, lad,” Gerontius said brightly. “What was it you wanted to tell us?”

There. The question had been asked. And Bungo fought the urge to squirm when Gerontius’s piercing green eyes sought his.

“It’s… well…” He cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

“Is something wrong with Belladonna?” Isumbras asked carefully.

“Oh, no, nothing’s wrong,” Bungo said quickly, giving Isumbras a jittery grin. “She’s well. More than well. As a matter of fact, she’s incredibly healthy, not to mention with child.”

Time seemed to slow to a halt as he finally got those words out. Three blank stares were directed at him. And then time sped up again, and brought along with it the reaction he had expected.

“She’s _what_?!”

Isengrim lunged at him and reached for the collar of his shirt. Isumbras leapt forward and grabbed his brother around the waist and hauled him back.

“For goodness’ sake, Grim, have you gone mad?!” Isumbras groaned. “What else did you expect to happen?!”

“You, you _dare_ , how bloody _dare you_!” Isengrim was roaring at the top of his lungs while he struggled against his younger brother’s grasp. “How _dare_ you touch my sister!”

Gerontius, on the other hand, simply picked up his cane and whacked his eldest son over the head with it.

“Isengrim Took!” he bellowed. “If you do not calm yourself _this instant_ , I swear that you will be sorry! Your sister is happily married, and if you cannot bring yourself to be _happy_ for her sake when she is with child, then I am well and truly ashamed of calling you my son!”

Bungo winced; those were harsh words among hobbits, and the reaction to them was almost instantaneous. Isengrim stopped struggling and shot his father a surprised look. Isumbras slowly let go of his brother and stepped back.

“Now, then…” Gerontius huffed and shook his head before giving Bungo a warm smile, as though he hadn’t just shouted at his son. “I am indeed glad to hear it, Bungo, and gladder still that you and Bella decided to come and tell us in person. How far along is she?”

“About three months now, or so we reckon,” Bungo replied nervously, still giving Isengrim jittery glances. “She took a while to notice, and waited a little with telling me.”

“Typical Bella,” Gerontius chuckled. “Come, lad, how about we go and see how the others took the news?”

Bungo paled a little at the suggestion, and then stumbled as Isumbras laughingly stepped over to him and threw an arm around his shoulders.

“No worries, little Baggins,” he grinned. “Father and I will keep you out of harm’s way if anyone apart from Grim took it badly!”

Gerontius and Isumbras kept up a steady stream of chatter as they dragged Bungo off, and Isengrim slowly followed them, still glaring daggers at all three.

 

The following months passed in a blur, and Bungo had never in his life been happier to have the aid of his own and Belladonna’s family. Belladonna’s temper flared every now and then for reasons quite beyond his understanding, and her anger was usually followed by loud sobbed apologies for having gotten angry in the first place. And then there was the odd cravings regarding food. He had never before been woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of clattering from the kitchen, only to find that his dear wife had craved something strange. Laura, Bungo’s mother, had laughed and told him that it was perfectly normal.

“Really, Bungo,” she had said to him one afternoon. “You’re the eldest of five siblings, and you never noticed any of this with me?”

Bungo really hadn’t had much to say to that.

And then there was Belladonna’s sudden terror one night in the later months, when she shook her husband awake and declared that the baby would have to come out from her body.

“You don’t understand,” she had argued when Bungo had sleepily stated that the baby obviously had to be born. “I am _huge_ , Bungo. I feel like I’ve had a whole melon stuffed into my stomach, and this has to come out of me, through a… a significantly _smaller_ opening.”

At that point, Bungo had fled the bedroom to make them both some tea, and to silently pray that Belladonna’s sudden fright would not persist. A frightened Belladonna Took was a very aggressive Belladonna Took, and calming her before the fear really took root was a very important key to one’s health.

But finally, _finally_ , the baby was born. And if Belladonna had wept when she first saw Bungo holding their son, well… At the very least no one had commented on it. And neither had anyone said anything about Bungo’s own tears when he had finally been allowed to see his wife after the birth.

They had two weeks of peace; two weeks of resting and slowly getting used to life with a baby to look after. Bungo could remember many sleepless nights from when he was a good deal younger when his little siblings would start crying and simply refuse to stop. This was quite a different cup of tea, he noted, for the simple reason that if little Bilbo was not hungry when he woke in the middle of the night, then it was Bungo he wanted.

Two weeks felt like no time at all, however, when Belladonna’s family descended on them. Belladonna herself took it all in stride, smiling and laughing as her parents and siblings embraced and congratulated her. Bungo, on the other hand, remembered all too clearly how Isengrim had reacted to the news of his sister’s pregnancy, and had vaguely considered writing up his will before the Tooks would arrive.

And true to Bungo’s suspicions, Isengrim had indeed growled and snarled at him like an angry wolf, but had been quite unable to utter any threats without having to fear instant retribution from either parents or siblings on Bungo’s behalf.

Then came the moment when Belladonna carried little Bilbo into the room, beaming with sheer glee when her family gathered around her. Bungo chuckled silently at the sight, wondering vaguely what the poor lad thought of all the sudden fuss and all the cooing noises directed at him. It had to be a very confusing experience.

“Don’t fidget so, Grim,” Belladonna said with a laugh. “If you want to hold him, you only have to say!”

Bungo watched warily while Isengrim carefully took the little bundle from his sister’s arms; at first he only stared down at the child, with a look on his face that wavered between delighted and confused. Finally it seemed that he settled on delighted, and a blinding smile spread on his lips.

“I’ll bet you’ll have a little heartbreaker on your hands in a few years, little sister,” he laughed. “Look at him, he’s beautiful!”

“I’m sure we’ll be more of a handful, spoiling him as we will,” snorted Isumbras. “But aye, he’s a fine lad.”

 

The visit passed with barely a hitch, and Bungo needed only withstand the laughter of the Took-brothers once, when they heard how he handled the wrath of their sister. It was, in fact, suspiciously easy to deal with the lot of them. So the evening when Isengrim suddenly joined Bungo on the bench in the garden for a smoke, the poor Baggins was quite unprepared for what followed.

“He looks like you, you know,” Isengrim stated calmly. “Bilbo, that is.”

Bungo blinked. He had been entirely certain that he was about to be severely reprimanded again for daring to touch Belladonna at all; but there was not a single hint of anger in the Took’s eyes as he stared at the garden.

“Does he?” Bungo mumbled around the stem of his pipe. “I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Perhaps a little pudgy for being so young, but that’s Baggins-blood for you,” Isengrim said, smirking when his companion sputtered and glared at him. “A joke, just a joke! No need to get wound up over that!”

“Pudgy, my foot,” Bungo grumbled. “Really, he looks precisely as he should.”

“Ah, the joy of protective fathers,” Isengrim hummed. “Getting wound up over the smallest of jokes if they’re about the little ones.”

“Oh, the joy of overly protective brothers,” Bungo replied, raising an eyebrow. “Ever so certain that their little siblings cannot handle their own lives, and ever so upset that said little siblings decide to marry and have children.”

There was a brief moment when he regretted those words and feared that he would walk away from this conversation with a broken nose, and possibly worse than that. Then Isengrim started to laugh.

“I do deserve that one, don’t I?” the Took said cheerfully. “I’ve never been good at letting my little siblings handle themselves, I’m afraid. I’ve grown used to being needed every other day by at least three of them, and Bella was one of those three up until her late tweens.”

Bungo couldn’t help but smile.

“I suppose that I do recognise that,” he said. “Except my siblings still call on me whenever they can, especially Bingo.”

“That’s right, you’re the eldest, aren’t you?” Isengrim frowned slightly and shook his head. “Now I feel like a right fool, I should have remembered at least that.”

“I suppose you were rather busy with disapproving of me,” Bungo chuckled. “Though we really could have gotten a better start.”

“That’s true. We could have used a better start than ‘Grim, this is the love of my life’ and ‘stay away from my sister or I’ll break your legs’.”

“It would’ve been a brilliant start if I’d ever had a chance to win in a fight.”

“A fight may well have ended with both of us dead.”

“Well, you would have survived for however long you could outrun your sister.”

They grinned at each other. It was certainly a confusing moment, but at the very least they were finally having a proper conversation.

“What brought this on, precisely?” Bungo asked. “We’ve barely ever managed to stay civil with one another, and yet here we are, having an actual conversation.”

“To be honest, you can probably put all the blame on your son,” Isengrim chuckled. “I do like children, and I’d like to be able to visit without scaring him every time I snap at you. Call it a truce, and an attempt to figure out what my sister actually sees in you.”

The sound of a throat being cleared made them both look up; Belladonna stood there with her hands on her hips and a playful smirk on her face.

“What I actually see in him, brother dearest, is a perfect gentlehobbit who would not abandon his poor little sister stuck in a tree to go fishing,” she said, her voice taking on a tone of glee when Isengrim winced. “Not to mention a beautiful mind and heart.”

“You went fishing while she was stuck in a tree?” Bungo stared at Isengrim and raised an eyebrow. “What on earth were you thinking?”

“That was only once,” Isengrim protested. “And she had gotten stuck in the same tree twice during the same day! I told her not to climb up again, and she didn’t listen!”

“And now I’m not listening to your whining, brother, but telling you both to come inside,” Belladonna said sweetly. “It’s time for supper, and you can work out the details of your truce after you’ve eaten. Let it be enough for now that it exists at all, if only for Bilbo’s sake.”


End file.
